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The Utah Department of Transportation is elated that a $62 million extension of the Mountain View Corridor is now one-third complete. But it worries that accelerating work creates a dangerous attraction for nearby school kids in West Valley City.
"There's a lot of temptation," says UDOT spokesman John Gleason. "We have big trucks, heavy machinery, dirt piles — everything that could possibly attract kids…. But it's no place for kids."
So UDOT held a press conference on Tuesday and plans to meet with students at Hunter High School and Hillside Elementary as school begins there Wednesday to spread warnings about the danger.
The agency will be in classrooms to "tell the kids what's going on out here with the construction project, the areas to avoid and how to navigate that project safely," Gleason said.
He adds that UDOT is especially concerned about students driving through work zones to Hunter High School, which is adjacent to the project. UDOT plans to stress to them to follow instructions of flaggers on 4100 South, and to watch signs.
Shawn Lambert, UDOT project engineer, said the agency also worries about people trying to cut through the work areas despite huge dirt-moving trucks now running constantly along the corridor.
"Because it was a green field for so long, people got used to walking through it. Now it's a construction zone so we definitely are encouraging people to stay out of there," he said.
The current project, which began this spring, will extend the Mountain View Corridor from 5400 South to 4100 South, at about 5800 West. It is expected to be completed in a year.
Lambert said it is about one-third complete now, with much of the elevation grading finished and work underway on the 21 new bridges in that stretch.
The new section will have two lanes in each direction, in what essentially will be the far outer lanes of a future freeway. Interior lanes and freeway interchanges will be added in the future.
A 15-mile section of Mountain View was completed in 2012 from 16000 South to 5400 South with two lanes in each direction plus bike lanes and trails. Eventually it is expected to be converted into a full freeway between State Road 73 in Utah County to Interstate 80 in Salt Lake County.
Construction on the next section of the highway, from 4100 South to California Avenue, is expected to begin in 2018, Lambert said.